reshman Zye Boey was the lone qualifier for the NCAA National State Track Meet after this weekend’s regional meet, but he still feels the team accomplishments mean more than his lone achievements.

Boey advanced within the last spot in the 100 M race, while the 4X200 M relay team, which Boey also participated in, ended their season by not being able to qualify.

“Going into the meet, I wanted to P.R. and place to qualify for nationals, and while I didn’t get my personal best I still was able to complete half of what I wanted to,” Boey said. “It was unfortunate that the 4X200 (M relay) wasn’t able to advance also.”

After running the 100M sprint at 10.25 seconds, Boey will now start preparing for the NCAA National Track Championship. This will take place in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas on June 10-13.

“Now I will just keep training,” Boey said. “I have a week and half to get ready and I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing, keeping my body loose and work on my flexibility. I’m really going to work hard at my starts and work on exploding out of blocks, too.”

No matter what happens in Fayetteville, the red shirt freshman from MacArthur High School in Decatur has had nothing less than an impressive first year as a member of the Eastern Track Team.

At the Cardinal Twilight track meet in Louisville, Boey ran the 100 M sprint in 10.20 seconds. This time put him into school record books, tied in second place for the Eastern’s all time record in this event. He is currently tied with Sandy Osei-Agyeman, who turned in his second place time of 10.20 seconds in 1972.

Boey was also named the OVC Male Track Athlete of the year of 2009.

He always played sports and was a tri-sport athlete throughout high school, but track is where he wanted to put his priority.

He said he played football and basketball as well as track in high school, and while he loves football he came to Eastern for track and that’s all he wanted to do.

“A couple of my buddies came to Eastern then me and Coach Acres touched base and I came to Eastern to run, it’s a great team, with a great environment and it’s close to home,” Boey said.

Coming into his first season, he never expected to be such a standout.

“Before the season my only goals were just to better my times, and be just an average athlete,” Boey said. “I never expected as a freshman to make Nationals, I went father than my goals.”

After a full year his freshman year, Boey intends to keep working and keep improving.

“I want to keep going and I really want to work on the small things, all of the big things are down, but the small things can always be worked with.” Boey said.

He also has team goals in mind for improving the program as a whole.

“It would be nice to bring in more athletes, so we can bring a lot a people to nationals and not just one,” Boey said.

At Nationals, Boey said he is expecting high competition but still is looking to do his best.

“I want to come in and run a great race, and hopefully get the All-American Honor if I can win,” Boey said. “Getting the All-American Honor is the only thing left to do.”

Though Boey has had plenty of personal achievements, he still wants the team to succeed first.

“I’m proud of myself, my coach is proud, my teammates are proud, but really I’m a team guy, its cool to get awards, but I’m most proud we got the OVC Championship as a team,” Boey said.

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu.